Bigfoot lives -- despite what we said a few months ago

By Editorial Eureka Times-Standard

It was not long after the family of prankster and road builder Ray Wallaceannounced that Wallace had faked the original footprints of a giant hominidat Bluff Creek that the Times-Standard proclaimed that Bigfoot is dead. Ourswasnt the only paper. Several of Wallace's friends and acquaintances sworeall along that he was behind Bigfoot. Wallace's family produced the carvedfeet that made the prints. It all seemed to add up to a big hoax, the firstof many related to the creature.

But if you were a believer, none of it added up. The carved feet couldn'thave made the prints, they say, and they may be right. They can present apile of evidence they say proves the beast lives. These folks are nodifferent than the Bigfoot skeptics, who treat Sasquatch-related informationwith the same disdain as believers treat the outright dismissal of thecreatures existence.

But if Bigfoot -- real or imaginary -- is dead you wouldn't know it byreading newspapers. It seems that Wallace's alleged confession only servedto cast the sasquatch back onto center stage. Now, Jane Goodall is showingup to be the lead speaker at a Bigfoot conference in Willow Creek inSeptember. Some pretty hifalutin scientists are showing up to put their twocents in. Russian hominid experts are flying in too, for goodness sake. Itsproponents hope the conference will serve to drum up support for Bigfootresearch and provide a financial backbone with which to launch a big search.

Willow Creek has become more and more associated with Bigfoot. Stretches ofhighway and companies are named after the critter. And Willow Creek is proofpositive that it really doesn't matter whether Bigfoot is really out there.Skeptics and believers alike still see it as the Bigfoot center of theuniverse. This conference is likely only to solidify that notion.

Skeptics cajoled into complacency by Wallace's announcement fail torecognize the nature of the elusive beast, myth or reality that it may be.News of his death may be greatly exaggerated. In fact, news of his deathonly served to revive the legend.